Developer Tries to Buy Entire Complex

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has rejected a bid by a group of owners in an
aging North Vancouver housing complex to force the sale of their
property against the wishes of other owners who want to remain in the
complex.

The president of a condo homeowners' association said
that while the property is co-owned, not a strata-titled condominium
complex, the case raises questions about what will happen to thousands
of older condominium buildings in B.C. that are becoming costly to
maintain and are on land ripe for redevelopment.

About half of the 135 owners of the condo-like units in the 50-year-old Cypress Gardens wanted to sell the 3.8-hectare site.

Polygon
Pacific Homes Ltd. approached the owners in 2011 to buy their units so
it could redevelop the land with new buildings. But the Polygon deal
collapsed because not enough owners in the complex wanted to sell.

The
petitioners argued that the Cypress Gardens is in need of up to
$4.5-million worth of repairs and that they would be unable to sell
their individual units for as much money as they could get by selling
the entire site.

But their bid was opposed by many residents who
claimed that a sale would cause them hardship, largely because they
would not be able to afford other housing on the North Shore.

Justice
William Ehrcke rejected the petition, saying it would "unjust" to force
the sale because many families would be unable to purchase adequate
replacement housing in North Vancouver after the sale of their unit

Ehrcke
said an order for sale "would force particularly vulnerable people out
of their homes, including young children, single parents, the elderly,
the infirm, and people of very limited means."

Ehrcke added that
"there would be a negative impact on the children, who would suffer the
disruption of having to move, change schools, and develop new support
networks, if indeed their parents were even able to find new
accommodation to purchase, which in many cases is doubtful."

But
the Cypress Gardens case does raise a timely issue about the fate of
thousands of aging condo buildings in B.C., said Gioventu.

"There
is a substantial wave of older projects where residents will have to
assess the age of their buildings, what it's going to cost to maintain
and whether they should look for other alternatives."

Gioventu
said there are up to 3,000 condo buildings over 35 years of age that
"will soon be reassessing their cost ratios versus what their other
options are".

This entry was posted on November 8th, 2012 by Owen Bigland | Posted in Video Blog